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Languages

Guóyǔ

Guóyǔ (Guó·yǔ National · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in Taiwan)] 国语 國語) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

This is the expression commonly used in Taiwan to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin.

Unfortunately, politics sometimes raises its ugly head in language matters, and so it is worth noting that in some situations, there may be political implications of using “Guóyǔ (Guó·yǔ National · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in Taiwan)] 国语 國語)” or one of the other ways to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin in Mandarin. For example, even though generally “pǔtōnghuà (pǔ·tōng·huà common; universal · {through(out) → [common]} · speech → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in China)] 普通话 普通話)” (a previous MEotW) has been the term used in mainland China to refer to Mandarin, there appear to be political reasons for the reportedly increasing usage of the term “Guóyǔ (Guó·yǔ National · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in Taiwan)] 国语 國語)” in the Xinjiang region of China, involving promotion of nationalism—the “guó (country; nation; state)” in “Guóyǔ (Guó·yǔ National · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in Taiwan)] 国语 國語)” means “nation”. For more information, see these posts on the excellent Language Log blog:

Posts on this Mandarin Expression of the Week blog about other Mandarin expressions used to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin can be viewed using the link for the Mandarin tag.

Categories
Languages

pǔtōnghuà

pǔtōnghuà (pǔ·tōng·huà common; universal · {through(out) → [common]} · speech → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in China)] 普通话 普通話) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

This is the expression commonly used in mainland China to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin.

Unfortunately, politics sometimes raises its ugly head in language matters, and so it is worth noting that in some situations, there may be political implications of using “pǔtōnghuà (pǔ·tōng·huà common; universal · {through(out) → [common]} · speech → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in China)] 普通话 普通話)” or one of the other ways to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin in Mandarin. For more information, see these posts on the excellent Language Log blog:

Other Mandarin expressions commonly used to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin will be future Mandarin Expressions of the Week. Posts about these different Mandarin expressions used to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin will be viewable using the link for this blog’s Mandarin tag.